The Sri Lankan Ministry of Defence, Public Security, Law & Order has released a video “recovered from the possession of a dead LTTE terrorist by the 58 Division during ground advances made into general area South of Vellamullivaikkal.”

Since the original file posted on the www.defence.lk website was an unwieldy 14 MB WMV file, I’ve reprocessed it in a more web-friendly format.

Sri Lankan authorities assert that the video proves “LTTE’s use of civilians as forced labour.”

“The video shows footage of terrorists in civilian attire firing at both security forces and fleeing hostages by a pedal gun fixed to an armour-plated ‘Unicorn’ type vehicle. In the background, civilians brought to build earth bunds are forced to camouflage the vehicle with leaves and branches. The video clearly shows another LTTE cameraman who is positioned to video any form of military retaliation towards the terrorists, taking cover among the civilians brought to forced labour. This is what they do and this is the very sort of footage extracted by international media to carry spread the LTTE’s spin on the ground reality.”

The Lankan government has also published images from ‘Prabhakaran’s family album’: Album 1 | Album 2